


The Replacement

by Haywire



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Buffy AU, Crossover, Gen, Pacific Rim AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-05
Updated: 2013-09-05
Packaged: 2017-12-25 16:19:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/955209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haywire/pseuds/Haywire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A BtVS AU set in the Pacific Rim universe. Buffy and her team are recovering from a loss and meet their new potential team mate, Faith. They get off to a... well, -a- start of some sort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Replacement

**Author's Note:**

> BtVS spoilers for s2 of Buffy in the background story. In my mind I was picturing a secondary breach off the west coast of California, nicknamed the Hellmouth, which would allow both the canon Pacific Rim characters to exist surrounding the first breach and this fic to complement it. However, to keep it simple for this little fic, I just left it vague as to locations etc.
> 
> Hope it makes sense, as I really like the idea but it's been awhile since I've seen the film and I hope I haven't messed it up too badly. XD

Waves lapped against the dock, sloshing against the water stained wood. At its end a woman kneeled, holding a square piece of cardboard upon which rested a single flower. She watched the impromptu raft bob in the current, ensuring the flower remained stationary, and once she was satisfied she released it.

Free from its mooring, the vessel floated outward to open waters. The woman got to her feet, crossing her arms as she watched it slowly shrink toward the horizon. She watched it as it disappeared, then turned to leave.

“That was a nice gesture, Buffy.”

“It was a gesture,” replied the blonde as she stepped off of the dock and back onto dry land. “It doesn’t change anything.”

Willow, who’d been standing at the end of the dock watching from a distance, fell into step beside her. “Still, it was a nice one. She would’ve appreciated it.”

“If she were here, yeah, probably. But she’s not, and that’s my fault.” She hugged herself tighter, shaking her head as she spoke.

“No, it isn’t.” Willow reached over and placed a hand on Buffy’s shoulder, bringing her to a halt. She continued even as Buffy raised an eyebrow and stared from Willow’s hand on her shoulder to her friend. “You’ve got to stop blaming yourself for what happened.”

“Willow.” She continued to stare but made no motion to remove the red head’s hand.

“Ok, ok. Sorry.” Willow removed her hand and watched Buffy continue on to the Shatterdome for a few beats before jogging to catch up to her, keeping her hand by her side this time. “But you know I’m right, Buffy.”

“We’ve got a meeting with Giles, we can deal with this later.” she lied.

“I-” Willow sighed then fell silent. Another figure joined them in their march through the Dome, falling into rhythm with them on Buffy’s other side.

“Hey Buff, Will.” Xander tilted his head upward towards Willow. “Didja have The Talk?”

“Nothing to talk about, Xander.” Buffy answered, yanking open a large steel door with ease. She went through first, continuing her beeline to Giles’s office.

“I’m not talking about the birds and the bees, Buff, I’m talking about Kendra and-”

“You heard her, Xander, there’s nothing to talk about.” Willow replied. “She’s obviously perfectly fine and we’re just imagining things, so don’t worry about it.”

“Riiiiiiight.” He shot both Buffy and Willow a look. “Meanwhile, back in the real world - where we talk about reality almost exclusively, might I add - everyone’s abuzz about the new arrival.”

“New arrival?” Buffy turned to face Xander this time.

“So _that’s_ why my ears have been burning all day.”

The three of them looked in unison at the source of the voice, spying a brunette woman leaning against the large oak desk that normally dominated the room, arms crossed over her chest and a smirk on her face.

“Ah, there you are. Buffy, Willow, Xander, I’d like you to meet Faith.” Giles got to his feet from his position behind the desk, coming into view as he rose and walked out to meet them. “Faith is here to fill our recent, er, vacancy.”

“Is that we’re calling it now?” murmured Buffy.

“Regardless of what happened, that is the end result of what transpired and what needs to be addressed, yes.” said Giles. “The reality-”

“I was _just_ talking about reality.” Xander interjected before falling silent as Giles leveled a gaze at him. “Sorry, sir.”

“As I was saying, the reality of the situation is that we need pilots. Kendra will be missed, but we cannot let our mourning interfere with the task at hand.” Giles removed his glasses, rubbing them with a cloth he took from his pocket and flicking his eyes at Buffy as he spoke. “I am not a mere impartial watcher of things here. My job is to command an elite crew to defend us against the kaiju assault on this planet, and that’s precisely what I intend to do.”

“Any updates on the Hellmouth?” Willow changed the subject as Buffy and Faith just stared at each other in silence.

“No, which is troubling in and of itself. The breach - colloquially referred to as the Hellmouth,” he explained for Faith’s benefit. “has been quieter than usual, considering that we’re due for another episode in less than twenty four hours.” Giles nodded to the large digital clock that dominated the Shatterdome outside of his office, which was counting down from nineteen hours and change.

“Something big’s coming.” said Buffy.

“You know what they say, bigger they are, harder they fall.” Faith countered.

“Yeah, nothing we can’t handle, am I right? Our team’s fought some pretty big bads before after all.” Xander nodded toward the large jaeger outside. “Ol’ _Slayer_ can handle anything those kaiju throw at her.”

“‘Our’ team, yes. Emphasis on _our_ , in quotation marks, as in everyone in this room except Faith.” It was Buffy’s turn to cross her arms, while Faith smirked even more but stayed quiet.

“Buffy. You know full well it requires two persons to enter the drift in order to pilot a jaeger.” Giles said. “Willow is more than competent to handle comms-”

“Thank you.” the redhead piped in with a small grin.

“Xander’s crew of mechanics keeps us _Slayer_ in one piece and in tip top shape for each deployment into battle-”

“They don’t call me the jagermeister for nothin’.” Xander quipped.

“But you can’t do it alone. I-” Giles stopped at his choice of words as he saw Buffy’s reaction. He paused before continuing. “You need a partner.”

“Then I’ll get a partner. Round up the candidates and we’ll test them out until we find the best one.” Buffy shrugged.

“I’ve been doing just that while you’ve been… away.” Giles coughed, retreating behind his desk for one of his files. “Faith has bested every active recruit we have in the program at the moment.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it.”

“Want a demonstration, B?” Faith spoke up.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Who’s gonna stop me? You?” Pushing off from the desk, Faith cracked her knuckles and walked towards the blonde in anticipation of her answer.

“Buffy, Faith-” Giles started, stopping when both Willow and Xander moved to one side. He sighed and followed suit, giving the pair room.

Buffy’s response was a quick jab, intended to test Faith’s reactions more than anything. Faith didn’t disappoint, deftly dodging the blow and raising her arms. Keeping her eyes on Buffy, she circled around the room while Buffy did the same, taking in her opponent.

Faith moved first this time, sweeping her leg out in a lightning fast strike. Buffy hopped over her leg, blocking the punch the brunette threw as she followed through with her motion and rose back up to her feet.

Faith pulled back, preventing Buffy from holding her arm, and aimed a roundhouse kick at her head. Buffy ducked underneath and landed a punch in Faith’s side, eliciting a growl from her.  
Instead of retreating, she surprised Buffy with a quick counter attack, hitting Buffy with a similar strike. They separated and circled each other once again.

“Tag, you’re it, B.” smirked Faith.

Yelling, Buffy charged in, kicking high at Faith who flipped backwards out of the way. The blonde pressed forward, launching forward with another kick where she projected Faith would land. The kick was blocked and Faith clutched onto Buffy’s foot, but before she could do anything to her attacker Buffy pushed herself skyward with her other leg, leaning sideways and spinning, simultaneously freeing one foot and hitting Faith in the face with the other.

Faith pulled back, rubbing her cheek and grinning wildly. She countered by unleashing a flurry of punches at Buffy, which the blonde evaded by leaning back, then blocked, then blocked again, before Faith was face to face with her, still coming at her. She grabbed one of Faith’s hands and attempted to throw her own punch, which was blocked by Faith who likewise grabbed her hand. Both warriors pressed against the other face to face, each holding the other’s arms. Buffy glowered while Faith just chuckled.

“Y’see, B? Old man Giles here was right, it seems. I’m every bit as good as you, hell, maybe even bet-”

Buffy interrupted her monologue with a headbutt. Faith staggered back, more pissed off at having been interrupted than in pain. She grabbed a letter opener off of the nearby desk, cursing all the while, and raised it overhead as she advanced on Buffy before Giles stepped between them.

“That’ll be quite enough, from both of you.” He looked back and forth between his charges, who continued to stare at one another for another beat before lowering their arms to their sides. “Faith, are you alright?”

“Five by five, boss.” she replied, putting the letter opener back on the desk and crossing her arms in front of her once again. Her eyes never left Buffy’s the whole time.

“That’s right, save it for the kaiju, you two.” Xander cleared his throat and stepped out in front of Willow, whom he’d found himself standing behind during the fracas.

After one more glance to either side, Giles nodded and stepped aside, sitting back down behind his desk. “Willow, you know what to do. You’re all dismissed.”

“Come on Faith, we’ve got some tests to do.” Willow gestured towards the door and, after a quick conciliatory shrug in Buffy’s direction, followed the brunette outside. Once they were gone Xander and Buffy took their leave of Giles, with Xander shutting the door behind him as they exited.

“Well, that went well.” he deadpanned.

Buffy wrapped her arms around herself and remained silent. The pair walked out to a nearby railing, looking out at _Slayer_ as the rest of Xander’s maintenance team worked on the large machine. “Repairs almost complete?”

“Like Giles said, tip top shape.” He pointed to various locations on the jaeger. “Hull breach sealed, strengthened the hull all around. Fine tuned the hydraulics which should further improve the response time to your commands, and with Will’s help we were able to squeeze some more power out of core.” Xander tapped his own chest, mimicking the location of the jaeger’s core and its power source. “Ticker’s stronger than ever, Buff.”

She nodded in response. “Good to hear, because if Giles turns out to be right and we…” She stared off in the direction Willow and Faith had headed. “We’ll likely be pushing it pretty hard.”

“She’s strong. She can take it.” Xander replied, eyes on Buffy.

“She won’t break.” she said.

Both of them continued to stare at the jaeger in silence, waiting for whatever was coming their way next.


End file.
